RM10 system is as good as BOSE?

Santi_Racing

Hi: I'm remodelling my house, and want to replace my old Kenwood speakers for something smaller and wall mounted. I've always been interested in the small Bose cubes, but came aorund the RM 10 (5 speakers set).

Is it as good? Or does anybody have any suggestion?

Thanks!!

dpljr

Save a lot of money and get better performance with the RM10s. I had RM6880s and a good friend had Bose. I listened to his in a good size room, and they were blown away by the Polks. Beware of your showroom displays, as I could never find a store that you could do a side by side comparison of anything with Bose. There is nothing wrong with Bose, in fact I still own some vintage Bose bookshelf speakers, but they are drastically (in my opinion) overpriced, and the newer speakers do not deliver on the company's reputation.

zx_toth

I had a 5.1 speaker set up with RM30s and it blew Bose out of the water. The RM10 with a decent sub is 1/2-1/3 the cost and will sound better a Bose system with its 'bass module'. After all a Bose system is missing an 80 hz frequency range between 200 hz and 280 hz and the 'bass module' only goes down to 46 hz!

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THE COLD HARD NUMBERS (PART ONE):
Unlike any other speaker or amplifier manufacturer, Bose refuses to publish any frequency response charts or distortion data on their products (and with good reason). And thus a few independent audiophiles, industry professionals, and newsgroups have taken it upon themselves to benchmark test the much debated Acoustimass system. The resulting numbers are always consistent. Here is a pretty credible one sourced from the August 1999 issue of Sound and Vision magazine...

SATELLITES BASS MODULE
Frequency Response 280 Hz to 13.3k Hz at ±10.5 dB 46Hz to 202Hz at ±2.3 dB
Sensitivity (SPL at 1 meter)* 85.1 dB N/A
Impedance (minimum/nominal) 5.3/8 ohms N/A
Bass Limits (-3/-6 dB) 280/220 Hz 46/40 Hz

* measured with 2.8 volts of pink-noise input

To reiterate the above, the Acoustimass's bass module responds to 46 Hz to 202 Hz at ±2.3 dB, while the satellites respond to 280 Hz to 13.3 KHz at ±10.5 dB. This is, by the way, the only speaker that I have ever seen tested with a ±10.5 db allowance. Still, this leaves a frequency gap between the satellites and bass module of about 80 Hz! That is 80 hertz of sound that is completely erased within the system's internal crossovers! I wonder how Bose figured out which 80 hertz matters least in the audible spectrum? I will tell you though that that gap accounts for a HUGE loss in midrange sound, which is responsible for the majority contralto, baritone, and tenor vocals in music, and many sound effects in home theater. And let us not forget that the Acoustimass system also ignores audible signal from 20Hz to 45Hz on the low end (deep bass), and 13KHz to 20KHz on the high end (high treble). Do the math folks, this Bose system only produces 13,176 of the 19,980 Hertz in the audible sound spectrum. That's only ~66% of the actual recording being played back to you! Is this the kind of performance you'd expect from a $1300 product? Most speakers in the same price range are able to respond from 15 Hz to 25 Khz and all modern media formats, from vinyls to DVD, record these frequencies as well. Though these are peak frequencies that most humans can not hear, the pressure produced from 15 Hz and 25 KHz frequencies can be detected physiologically, and will in fact have an effect on the harmonics of the music you listen to. So why does this "industry-leading" Bose company only produce about 52% of the sound of it's equal-priced market competitors? Good question..

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So if you want to be pay 2-3x as much for 52% of the sound go with the Bose! Hey non-audiophiles will be impressed by the name alone so you dont even have to play it to impress them!

I hope I just saved you some money!

Zsolt

cc16177

I work at an ABC Warehouse and i have all of the Polk speakers we carry (Tsi100-400 as well as the CS10, Monitor 30s and 50s) hooked up in an area where the music can be switched between them and the Bose 131's(outdoors), 161s, and 191s (in wall). Every single time I get a customer asking about Bose I direct them to the Polks and literally every single time their jaw just drops when I show the difference. Even just between the Tsi100 and the Bose 161's, there is such an immense difference in the sound it just blows them away... Most customers try to say that the 161's are just the lower end of the Bose selection when in all reality (and I actually spoke with the Bose rep today to confirm this) the Bose 161's are actually just the cube speaker in a larger housing. After demonstrating this pretty much every day I don't think i'll ever buy anything Bose again.

Santi_Racing

Thanks a lot guys for your input. Well, I guess the decission is quite simple.

One last question, now that Polk is the choice, are the RM10 powerful enough for a small/medium room? Should I consider something bigger?

Thanks again

zx_toth

Im assuming you were looking at the Bose and Rm10 systems for space saving reasons and to minimize the foot print/visual impact. Certainly if you are only interested in sound quality going larger will usually give you BIGGER sound due to the volume of air that can be moved by larger speaker cabinets ....

The best thing for you to do now is to listen to some systems and hear the differences between smaller, medium, larger speakers (satelites vs book shelf vs floor stander) and see what you think. If the sounnd characteristics from a larger system isnt worth the bigger speaker than dont go with it but if the sound captivates you from a larger book shelf or floor stander speaker than go with it if you dont have a wife/girlfriend nagging you about the size of it, besides the new Rtia and VM series look pretty sexy in my opinion even at their larger sizes. Keep in mind even amongst szies there is sound quality differences for example R series < Tsi/Monitor <Rti/Rtia< LSi.

Zsolt

ben62670

There is a saying "no highs no lows must be Bose". Small speakers can't compete with larger speakers, but if you want small speakers Polk tends to beat the competition $ for $ with any of their product lines. Welcome to Club Polk.
Ben

zx_toth

One more thought ... if you were set on the Rm series I would probably gfo with the RM20 setup. I sold my RM20s and the guy stated that he found they were a big improvement over the RM10s he originally had as fronts and are still wall mountable/ small. The RM30s are probably larger than you would like from what you are saying ..

so bottom line if you want the RM series and still small but with bigger sound go with the RM20 setup. Look at that specifications for frequency and size between the two and listen in store if you can.

Zsolt